Tag Archives: the galactic consortium

When Sophia’s sister Shaelynn arrives on Shoshone Station, she finds herself being dragged back to a life she thought she’d left behind, the life of Zach. But what can she do, her mom is dying. Unless Sophia can help her.

Kleppie thought he would return to Texas a hero. He’d been part of the famous USS Cambridge crew. He’d been to space. But he quickly finds that doesn’t mean much to those left behind.

Shoshone Station: Less than a year ago, they arrived over earth’s sky. They call themselves the Galactic Consortium and they are human, or at least, simian — from the same genetic line as humans. They claim to have terraformed this planet centuries ago to serve as a base for their exploration of this galaxy. What happened to the settlers, why none of us remember this, remains a mystery.

For America the concerns are more immediate. Will the Consortium accept our independence?

Shoshone Station is the first joint enterprise, a solar power, space station parked in geostationary orbit over Denver, Colorado. Its been “gifted” to America, but as Sherman Lannister takes command he wonders just how much control the new American crew will really have. After all, what do they know about running a space station?

For Sophia, a homeless transgender youth from Denver, and many like her the station is a second chance at a new life. But what will she do living amongst the stars?

Blurb:

The day after Christmas, Jake King fights with his mom. He knows how hard it is for her, raising four kids with no help. But it’s not like there are jobs in Caspar, Wyoming. Not for a young man like Jake, not that pay decent. What can he do? Two days later he finds himself in Bamako, Africa, part of the Consortium’s African Administration. Is this the new reality? Commuter jobs halfway around the world?

Fox planned a relaxing vacation with Nara Suun in Southern Africa. But the fates seem to have other plans, he runs into the last person he wants to see, Gerald Klempke. The man he helped put into a Consortium Penal Colony for rape. Klempke says he wants to talk, wants to turn over a new leaf. But Fox isn’t sure he trusts him, but what can he do?

I was starting to worry I wouldn’t get it done this month, but here is the next installment in the Shoshone Station Serial adventure.

It’s Lannister’s first Christmas on the station. For once he has the room and time to play host to for the family Christmas celebration. His plans are complicated by the arrival of his run away niece, now an out trans man.
The arrival of a human woman with a squid child places Zeta is an awkward place. Her job demands she investigates, but how can she put another person through the same hell she grew up with? And what if she refuses?

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Dan Oleson has been chosen to serve as embassy security on Saras Station in the Consortium, but he will soon discover the dangers are of a different type than he’s expecting.

Rumors are swirling about an asteroid or some other large body colliding with the earth. Would the Consortium allow such a thing to happen? More importantly, it seems the rumor may have started on Shin Station, of all places. Can Dan find the answer to this riddle?

Serious scientist mostly downplay the idea of terraforming another planet.

They have two reasons for this, but they seem to miss one important point. So I am going to tell you four ways that terraforming could benefit, or even save, the earth today.

But first, the two reasons that scientists downplay terraforming as a serious endeavor:

The timescale of terraforming is enormous. We can’t simply seed the entire surface of Mars with plants, come back in six weeks and find a livable planet. The best case for terraforming would be thousands of years. More likely it will take tens of thousands.

Looking beyond our solar system becomes a double edged sword. We might find planets out there that are ripe and ready for our kind of life, or at least closer to what we need then Mars or Venus. That could shorten the terraforming time considerably. But we have to get there and short of some sort of science fiction faster than light ship, it’s going to take thousands of years to make the voyage.

Meanwhile the problems that we face here on Earth are likely to come to a head within the next few years, or at most within the next couple of generations. Overpopulation, climate change and resource depletion are nearing the crisis point right now. So you can’t fix overpopulation by starting a colony on Mars because it will be thousands of years before Mars will be able to support the number of people you would need to send to make even a small dent in the world’s population.

The second problem with terraforming is the whole resource-to-benefits conundrum. Terraforming would require a huge outlay in resources with only distant benefits in return.

It goes like this, we’ve spotted oil on Titan (or at least hydrocarbons that are like oil). So why not go there and get it to renew our depleted fossil fuels?

The short answer is that it takes a massive amount of energy to build rockets and fly them deep into space to get there. And then another outlay in energy to fly the oil back to Earth. You end up spending more energy to get the oil than it provides.

I could go on but the point remains. We can not fix the problems we face here on Earth by fleeing to a new planet. But there is still a strong case for actively pursuing terraforming.

How terraforming can benefit us right now

The point that most scientist and arm chair terraformers seem to miss is that the technological hurdles we face in terraforming dovetail with a lot of the problems we face on this planet. Developing the technology to terraform another planet may kill two birds with one stone, it will fix our problems here, too. Here are just four examples.

Now maybe you can see why it takes thousands of years to terraform a planet. But lets say we start working on the technology today. What are the benefits for us right now?

The earth is warming. Even die hard climate change deniers accept this fact. (They argue that its not man made and is instead part of some natural cycle, but they don’t argue the basic math, we are getting warmer.) At the rate we are going our earth will be nearly 2 degrees warmer by 2050.

B) compared to the 76 degree change we need to make Mars livable, it’s a drop in the bucket. So I propose our test run for terraforming another planet is to develop technology to lower our earth back 2 degrees to where it was.

With our current technology it would take about six months to get to Mars. With the necessity of waiting for the planets to align, the round trip would take nearly two and half years. What are you going to eat that entire time? If we want to terraform the planet and that’s going to take thousands of years, what will the colonist eat? You can’t pack that many dried rations.

The answer is that we will need to create small, intensive hydroponics or something similar. Our space capsule must be able to produce a sustainable diet in a very small amount of space.

And honestly, we need that now. Our current agricultural practices are just not sustainable. There are three problems with it, it takes a massive toll on the environment, it is very land intensive (meaning it takes up a lot of space) and it won’t be able to feed our growing population for much longer.

There are two sacred cows in agribusiness that make our system so unsustainable. The first is — cows. I am not going to argue for militant veganism, but our desire to eat large quantities of meat isn’t sustainable and won’t work in space.

The other huge sacred cow is oil and petrochemicals. From herbicides and pesticides, the gas we put into tractors to plant and harvest crop and the gas we use to ship produce all over the world, every aspect of agriculture is touched by petrochemicals. Without them our system would collapse.

Imagine a city that could feed itself, leaving the surrounding land to return to nature.

What we need is a way to grow the bulk of our food in a small contained area close to where it is needed. That is a must for terraforming but would have far reaching benefits for earth right now. Imagine a world where cities can produce their own food and large swaths of farmland can be returned to their natural state. Imagine having a room in your house that grows all your produce and you only have to shop occasionally for luxury items.

Energy

The economic argument against terraforming goes like this; it takes a tremendous amount of energy and resources to terraform another planet, so you must first solve the issue of energy scarcity. But once you’ve created cheap, sustainable energy, you no longer have the same incentive to go to another planet in search of resources.

So? Solve the issue of energy scarcity? Yes! That’s exactly what we need to do.

In order to fly to Mars and back we need to be able to create energy in abundance, through some cheap, infinitely renewable source. In order to break our addiction to fossil fuels, we need to find a cheap and infinitely renewable energy source.

What that will that look like? Solar, wind, nuclear or something we haven’t dreamed up yet, I don’t know. But clearly it’s the next step in technological evolution and we should all be invested in making it. Whether we do it because we are running out of oil, because we want to go to another planet, or some other reason is irrelevant.

Society

Terraforming projects take thousands of years. What kind of society will we have in a thousand years?

I believe the answer is yes, and it’s something we must absolutely strive for. Really the biggest obstacle to terraforming another planet isn’t scientific or technological. Our scientist know what to do and could do most of it with technology we already possess. It’s political and cultural.

Like the other problems we’ve discussed, the issues are surprisingly similar to what we must face in terraforming. How do we share scarce resources fairly? How do we live and cooperate in small spaces? How do we learn to work together on projects that we will never see the end result of?

In the end tackling these problems will soon become imperative. So what are we waiting for?

You know who is really good at terraforming? The Galactic Consortium. Check out my ongoing sci-fi serial about their arrival over the skies of Earth.

The third installment of the Shoshone Station serial is out now! Check it out today!

The Egg:

Sophia’s first day as liaison for the new medical wing starts out exciting, they have rescued a premature infant from the surface. But its new home, the bio-medical egg, sparks conflict between the healer, Bankim and Zeta, the diplomat.

Shoshone Station:

Less than a year ago, they arrived over earth’s sky. They call themselves the Galactic Consortium and they are human, or at least, simian — from the same genetic line as humans. They claim to have terraformed this planet centuries ago to serve as a base for their exploration of this galaxy. What happened to the settlers, why none of us remember this, remains a mystery.

For America the concerns are more immediate. Will the Consortium accept our independence?

Shoshone Station is the first joint enterprise, a solar power, space station parked in geostationary orbit over Denver, Colorado. Its been “gifted” to America, but as Sherman Lannister takes command he wonders just how much control the new American crew will really have. After all, what do they know about running a space station?

For Sophia, a homeless transgender youth from Denver, and many like her the station is a second chance at a new life. But what will she do living amongst the stars?

I finished another rough draft this week. It’s the third in my apocalypse series. You can check out Home for the Holidays here. Zoey and the Zombies is nearly through self edits. A Fishy End is now resting, I will come back in a month or two and re-read it. My plan is to take all three manuscripts and submit them to my editor over the winter sometime and publish them next year. I’m excited about getting this series out.

My next project, the one I am doing for Nanowrimo is Bear Naked Four: the Wolf Council. I have been trying to focus on series, in particular having most of a series done before I try to publish and promote them. In that vein, writing the rough draft to Bear Naked Four means I should go on to write five and six immediately after, wrapping up the entire story arc.

I say should because I wrote a while ago about Big Project Blues. Book four of a six book series, now that’s big project blues. Novels have become old hat to me now. But this series is stretching out of my comfort zone. Hopefully writing book four will bring me back some of the passion of the series, I really love the characters and I love where the story is going. It’s just getting it there.

I can’t complain, though. I love writing. It’s what keeps me going when the rest of life gets hard.

In the meantime I am expecting to get back the second episode of my Sci-fi serial, The Girl in the Tank today and start working on prepping it for publication. Episode two: A Shaky Start should be available at the start of the month, on multiple platforms.

In my sci-fi serial, the Girl in the Tank, the crew of the USS Cambridge find themselves rescued from a nuclear blast by an alien vessel, The Corelean (pronounced core-lee-ahn).

The Corelean is a medical evacuation ship. The Consortium is a space faring race. Simians, races that evolved from the same genetic line as humans, predominate in the Consortium and the Corelean is primarily designed with them in mind, though it can accommodate other races at need.

The Consortium has had the science of space travel down for a long time and most of their ships, stations and outposts have a high safety rating. However, life is never completely safe. Accidents can happen on space stations and natural disasters can befall planetside outposts, particularly in newer colonies. Medical evac ships are designed to provide valuable medical care, supplies and evacuation capabilities in times of emergency. They run with a crew of just over three hundred, a full third of which are trained and certified healers. In a short evacuation they can take on several hundred civilians, and they have facilities to house up to three hundred and some, which the Corelean will need with the Cambridge, which has a crew of just over three hundred.

A medical evac ship looks a bit like an oversized airbus or the US space shuttles, nearly six hundred feet long with stubby wings to navigate atmospheric landings. As part of my research process I’ve used vector art programs like Inkscape to do some floor plans and I might try to do some model mock ups in the future.

The Corelean technically has four levels. Three are accessible to crew, the lower level is engines and equipment, accessible only by technicians and rarely used. A rough floor plan of the two main levels is shown below.

The front forward bay has a wide open hatch leading out of the ship and is the primary way on and off the ship when it’s landed. It’s where most of the action occurs in an evacuation situation, civilians can be brought on board, severe injuries treated in special open treatment bays to the right. A low command deck allows the captain and master healer to direct the action and triage newcomers.

Immediately behind the forward bay are rooms designated as medi-bays. They contain medical tanks for the housing of those needing acute treatment for serious injuries. Only a handful of the American crew requires such intensive care and of them, Cheyenne Walker will be in these halls the longest.

Radiation is a fairly constant threat to any space-faring race. Space abounds with radiation. Terraforming planets requires setting up outposts in places not protected by the kind of atmosphere and magnetic belts that shield earth from solar radiation. As a result radiation burns and accidents are one of the more common injuries for spacefarers. The Corelean is equipped with a sizable decontamination room and a number of blue light machines which help to harmlessly absorb radiation from bodies at an accelerated rate.

Crew quarters are on the sides of the ship, midway back. Two long halls on either side of the two main decks house the majority of the crew. The crew quarters are small, just over six feet wide and twenty four feet long from door to window (if you are lucky enough to be on the window side). There are two bunks on either side of the room as you go back. At four crew members to a room, it gets a little crowded at times. The long hall contains twenty rooms to a side, with two lounges forward and aft. The rounded open alcoves at towards the end of the hall is a zero G lift. Climb in and propel yourself up or down. The zero G lifts are more than a fun way to go up or down, in a power emergency they allow technicians to climb between levels. The ship has more conventional elevator-like lifts and in a few places, stairs.

The upper third level is the flight deck, airlocks and other critical services. Access to the third level is restrict to those with at least Level One space certification and not even all of the Corelean crew can go there.

What is to come for the American crew of the USS Cambridge? If you did the math, the crew quarters can hold about 160 crew on each level or 320 on each side. Their Consortium hosts have all bunked up one side and the Americans are housed on the other side. It’s a tight fit, and they have six weeks of quarantine before their radiation levels will allow them to leave. How will they deal with the stress of radiation sickness, cramped living and a culture vastly different from their own? I guess you will just have to read the serial to find out.

I write to music most of the time. I’m always looking for good mood music, stuff that gets in the right space for a piece of writing. Sometimes I will create very specific soundtracks for specific books. Often there is a certain general match between genres of music and writing. For example, when I was working on a historical romance I was listening to a lot of folk music and celtic music.

But what about science fiction? Especially the kind of space oriented stuff I’ve been writing, like the Galactic Consortium. Finding music that fits that story can be a bigger challenge.

Then about a year ago I have the opportunity to hear this electronic violinist at a local coffee shop.

Huge shout to the Ritual Cafe for keeping local music alive!

To say Dixon’s violin is unworldly, is an understatement. The man plays by intuition and energy, often creating songs as he goes along rather than playing from a set list.

I bought one of his CDs that night and I have since downloaded others. It’s phenomenal mood music for writing sci-fi, I have discovered. So I would like to share his gift with my blog readers.

The Inter-stellar Whalesong on the Live at the Hilltop CD is my favorite, by the way.

Physicists at the turn of the century were struggling with what was then known as the three object problem.

One of the fundamental assumptions of science is that the world works in knowable, predictable ways. That if we understand the laws of nature and we know the necessary variables, we can predict anything.

The assumption works really well in the laboratory and on the theoretical level. The real world still defies science as often as not. This was the three body problem. Newtonian physics could predict how two bodies (Say a planet orbiting a sun) would interact but when they introduced three bodies (like a moon orbiting a planet orbiting a sun) things got really complicated really quick.

The three body problem was originally applied to astrophysics but it’s implications are much wider and ongoing. In fact, every field of science has it’s own version of the same dilemma. With each new development we get just a tiny bit better at predicting the results with a few controllable factors. But predicting the real world involves grappling with hundreds of factors and something known as the butterfly effect.

The butterfly effect was coined by mathematician Edward Lorenz, one of the founders of Chaos Theory. The butterfly effect has been grossly misunderstood by most as the notion that a butterfly flapping it’s wings in Brazil could create hurricanes in Texas. In actuality the butterfly effect is a fancy name for “sensitivity to initial conditions.”

Lorenz developed the theory while working on weather prediction models on early computers. He noticed that his prediction programs would be accurate for a short time, but small errors grew over time and they soon became a complete mess. He tried to enter the same data back into new models and got widely different results. Even tiny differences in the initial conditions (so tiny they could be compared to a butterfly flapping it’s wings) created significant differences down the line.

Because of this sensitivity, initially predictable results soon become chaotic, or random.

But they didn’t stay random. As computer technology and mathematical analysis grew, they discovered that if they continued to graph these theoretical systems, patterns emerged. The patterns often repeated themselves in fractals. They termed them strange attractors.

This is a simple Lorenz Attractor, named after Edward Lorenz. Chaos theory, like Quantum Theory, is filled with paradoxes. Individual events are predictable by science. But as those same factors continue to interact over time, they became impossible to predict. Given enough time, a pattern emerges that is, again, predictable.

Science Fiction master Isaac Asimov played with this notion in the Foundation trilogy. The creator of the Foundation, Hari Sheldon developed a science of psychohistory. His theory was that while the actions of a single individual was impossible to predict, the patterns of groups were, given sufficient information and time.

In my Galactic Consortium serial I am taking the same idea in a very different direction. Chaos theory, and especially fractal equations, have become popular with lay people because they make pretty pictures. There is a disconnect between what the graphs look like and what they really mean to scientist.

But what if there is a significance to their appearance as well? In the Galactic Consortium, the most advanced race, the Vatari believe so. The patterns of various equations (which appear everywhere in the natural world) are considered keys to a “divine language.” Understanding the symbols is key to understanding a level of physics that humans on earth have yet to develop, that of potentiality.

The Mandelbrot equation graphed.

Like the Mandelbrot, Barnsley is a mathematical equation turned into a graph.

How much truth is there to that idea? The Consortium is soft science fiction and I don’t intend to offer any proofs or arguments. But it does make an interesting idea for speculation. And some pretty cool artwork. Here are a handful of images I’ve created with GIMP and it’s built in Fractal Explorer.